GriBBsY's Beginner's
Guide To

Other Things a
Newbie should know

What the
Targetting Laser is for and how to use it. This is the second most newbie
FAQ after 'How do I lay a Turret?' This device fires a laser beam towards
a specific point and can be used as a 'range finder' for units carrying
mortars and grenade launchers. To use the Targetting laser select it
using key '9'. Point it at the place you want to take out and press
fire. Any mortar carrying heavys can now fairly accurately take your
target out. To increase accuracy always use the zoom function when acquiring
a target - default key 'E'. Be warned that use of the targetting laserwill
also make you a sitting duck (a green line points straight at your head.
It uses your energy up as well, which may hinder your jet-pack escape.
The Targetting Laser is excellent against static targets such as turrets,
but your mortar support will have a hard time if you are tracking a
moving target - let them take out 'movers' manually. To be honest, the
targetting laser is a nice idea but in reality is not that useful. Anybody
who's practised with a mortar gun for long enough, can gauge where they
should be aiming, solo.

Using the
Mortar gun in conjunction with the Targetting Laser. If somebody on
your team has gone to the effort of 'painting' a target for you, this
is how you use the Mortar accurately. Assuming the target you have been
given is in range, a white vertical line will appear on screen with
two small blue triangles along it. Both blue triangles indicate the
point you have to aim at to hit the target. The lower one projects the
shortest path, while the higher one projects a much more angled trajectory.
The advantage of using the higher one is that it's far harder for the
enemy to detect where the shells are coming from - plus you can hide
away from snipers behind large objects. Note that it's possible to use
the grenade launcher in the same way, but it's range and blast radius
is much smaller.

Using The
Chatmenu Properly. This is an extemely powerful feature of Tribes and
can enhance the gameplay enormously when used correctly. With it you
can coordinate your attack and defence, and speedily let your team mates
know what's going on around you. The chatmenu can be accessed by pressing
the 'V' key. Try to learn the three letter shortcuts to the most useful
commands. eg. Defending Our Base (VDD), Going Offence (VVG), Incoming
Enemies (VDI), Base Secure (VDC). The chatmenu also contains many useless
commands and player animations. These do nothing but irritate your more
experienced player trying to fight a battle. Don't use them, at best
the other players will mute you, at worse you'll be kicked off the server.

Be weary
of mines. This is fairly obvious if you're attacking the enemy base,
but don't forget you can trip up on your teammates mines too. A quite
legitimate defence is to mine around your own flag and switches. Mines
can be hard to see so look out for messages from your team to see where
mines have been placed - they've been put there to screw the enemy -
not for you to go and destroy them all (and take yourself with them).

Only fly
vehicles that you have built. This is the first time I've mentioned
vehicles in this guide - you really shouldn't be using them in your
first few games - you only have a limited supply of vehicles per team,
so you'd only be wasting them right now. It's incredibly annoying to
build a vehicle and see somebody else jump in and take off in it. If
you want to fly a vehicle, first learn how to pilot offline, second,
build your own rather than steal somebody else's.